Jimmy Savile: Lord Patten warns Maria Miller over BBC interference

BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten has sent a thinly-veiled warning to culture secretary Maria Miller the government should not wade into the row over how the BBC dealt with aspects of the
Jimmy Savile child sex abuse scandal.

Ms Miller wrote to Conservative peer Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC’s governing body, to say ‘real concerns’ had been raised about public trust in the BBC in light of Mr Entwistle’s evidence.

‘Following today’s select committee hearing and the revelations that have emerged about the factual inaccuracies in the BBC’s explanation about why the Savile item in Newsnight was pulled, very real concerns are being raised about public trust and confidence in the BBC,’ she wrote.

Culture secretary Maria Miller (Picture: Getty)

‘In all our conversations we have talked about the paramount importance of full public trust in the BBC’s inquiries and agreed that it is essential that licence fee payers can be assured that they are being conducted thoroughly and with the full cooperation of the BBC, in line with the Trust’s duty to “ensure that the BBC observes high standards of openness and transparency”.’

Ms Miller added it was ‘vital that these inquiries are able to follow the evidence wherever it takes them’.

The decision to drop a Newsnight investigation into whether Jimmy Savile was a paedophile has caused mayhem at the BBC (Picture: PA)

In a letter responding, Lord Patten wrote: ‘You know how seriously the Trust takes the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile and the need to maintain public trust in the BBC.’

Lord Patten, who pledged the inquiries would be ‘comprehensive and independent’, continued: ‘You have recognised both the credibility and the scope of those who are leading the inquiries and the wide scope of their terms of reference.’

In what is being interpreted as a warning the government should not overstep its mark, he added: ‘I know that you will not want to give any impression that you are questioning the independence of the BBC.’

Labour has called for a public inquiry into the BBC’s handling of the claims against Savile, who died in October 2011 at the age of 84.

Earlier this month ITV1 broadcast a documentary featuring claims from women that Savile had sexually abused them when they were teenagers in allegations dating from the 1960s onwards.